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Namco: "No alternative" means Ubisoft's PC DRM "a good strategy"

Olivier Comte of Namco Bandai has praised Ubisoft's highly controversial PC DRM as "a good strategy" in the wake of no real alternative in place.

Admits it is "certainly not" the best method by demanding always-on Internet, but argues it's "better to do something" than nothing. Namco must decide.

"I will be very honest," Comte said to CVG in an interview. He believes it's a good approach for one reason: "I have no alternative today," he said.

"Is the best one? Certainly not but as of today if I can make something else I'll do it, but it's better to do something than not do something."

"At the moment they are doing a good strategy," he added. Test Drive Unlimited 2 and The Witcher 2 are both coming to PC published via Namco, so they have some decisions to make regarding the DRM elephant in the room.

"We are analysing all of the situations. We have seen what Ubi and EA are doing, we've seen what Sony have announced for PS3 and it's clear that we need to make some choices," continued Comte.

"I'm convinced that whatever system you put in place you can be sure that two hours before putting it out it'll be cracked in Russia. I think that the combat against piracy is very complicated because it's very complicated to explain to a 12-year-old that drag and dropping a file on a PC is piracy - he was born with this."

Olivier Comte appears to have missed the news that piracy groups have already plundered the Ubisoft always-on DRM approach, and have in one case even thanked the publisher for putting out such a 'challenge' to be overcome.

Namco's thoughts are the polar opposite of Just Cause 2 developer Avalanche Studios, who have come out saying how much they hate DRM and criticized Ubi's system as it "punishes legal gamers", leaving pirates relatively unscathed as they bypass it all.